The
bordermarkers of the Pyrenees : all my trips
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- 8 may
2009 -
Through the mist
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esfr-trip-track-20090508.kml
(click to open in Google
Earth or copy link to Google Maps;
click right on this
link to download gpx-version)
It's a foggy day, making orientation difficult. The fog amplifies the silence and solitude.
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For explanation of
the gps-coordinates and other cartographic backgrounds:
see my cartography page
En route: 7.45-18.15, lunch 45' Elevation according to my watch: up 1435m Down 1308m, in total 2743 m
Heighest point 1039m, lowest 623m
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According
to visugpx
- distance : 11.6 km
- cum. elevation gain : 1004 m
- cum. elevation loss : 874 m
- total elevation: 1878 m
- altitude maxi : 998 m
- altitude mini : 655 m
- altitude average : 805 m
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An early start. Following the path uphill until a plateau with this barn.
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From that plateau on compass-reading uphill in the direction of bm141.
What seems at first the summit is not the summit, you have to climb on to the real summit with
bm141.
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Then descending on compass-reading to the road. At the road a little searching: the bm is at the western roadside.
Bm142
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Bm142
The border-crossing is clear: the French tarmac stops there and there's a bordere-fence going ophill.
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Then a steep descent into the forest, using my compass, the final - wet - part to the stream being slippery.
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Crossing the stream is not easy. I
search long for bm143, going hence and forth along the streaam. The gps
tells me where the border is more or less and I can identify a
forest-trail descending to the E-bank to the approximate border by
comparing it with the map.
But I can't find bm143. Perhaps it's hidden under the fallen trees or it has flooded away.
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I give up and climb
uphill - slippery - and get too much at the Spanish side, get
desoriented and arrive outside the forest near to two shepherd's cabins.
Miracously, I spot during a brief brightening-up a marker on a ridge
far away. Via a dirtroad behind the cabin at the right, I reach the
ridge and further on I find
bm144.
I take a lunch-break, sitting against the bm.
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Then a very steep descent to and climb from a stream.
This picture: looking down into that steep valley.
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But
I can't find bm145. It's difficult to orientate in the mist but in the
end I think I have found the "l'arête inclinée" from the Procès-Verbal.
But I'm not sure and still: no bm145.
I have to return here.
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I continue to the tarmac road, climb a bit on the road until the approximate borderline, then climb the hillridge and find
bm146.
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Then
descending to the tarmac road on the other side of the ridge, following
it in its bend on Spanish territory. There I spot a large boulder above
the road at my right hand.
I climb to it and on its backside I find
bm147.
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Bm147
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The boulder with bm147, seen from the road.
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I keep following the road, take a
branch to the right which turns into a dirtroad on the borderline and -
after two bends - arrives at a cabin. Just before the cabin, east of
the dirtroad, I find
bm148.
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Bm148
Despite not finding bm143 and 145, I'm content with the 'harvest' of today.
But my progress is too slow and I have to proceed in the direction of St-Jean-Pied-de-Port tomorrow.
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I return on the road and find this camping-spot. A watertap at the house makes things easier.
Coordinates: N43 02 35.9 W1 24 03.0 H 792m.
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